BS Professor on a Bike(A personal blog on a hobby. And BS, as everyone knows, stands for Biological Sciences)Miles ridden so far this year: 603 ( as of 04/20/09)

Some people golf, others watch sports, but two of my spend-up-time
interests in life are to ride alone and become and expert in BS.
Some might argue that I've succeed in the latter
goal, but that might not be entirely true. It should be pointed
out that I am an Associate Professor.
That means that I am outranked by full Professors in Biological
Sciences who, according to the academic hierarchy, are better
recognized for being experts in BS than I am.

It gets cold in Western New York during the winter
months, but I've been out when the temperature was 28 degrees and my
ears were feeling numb from the wind. I only ride when the roads
are dry and it's still daylight. Unfortunately, daylight hours
during the first few months of the year are short and days in which the
road is dry are few. I wasn't able to get out at all during the
month of January this year. That's part of the reason that New
York stinks in the winter. I could use a better word than "stinks", but I am
trying to be nice.

Photograph taken in Oregon during Christmas about 1960 where
my brother and I (on right) were given new bicycles as gifts.
These were Schwinn models that cost $40 each and probably put
a financial dent on our parents budget. The feeling of eager
anticipation seen on my face in this photograph was rediscovered later in life.

Riding bicycles is as much about
mental health as it is about physical fitness. I take bicycles
apart, down to spokes and bearings, and put them back together as a
part of the experience. One could say that it's good therapy.
At least it helps me to maintain a few of my most precious
delusions in life: I am able to fix something and I am a free
man.

One of the odd things that one
encounters among fellow bikers is brand snobbishness. It's
funny to watch, yet at the same time, disconcerting. According to some, one
must have the newest and most expensive bike with the right brand name
before one can be respected as a biker. To me, this is one of the major diseases affecting our artificial and
materialistic culture. Moreover, it seems to infect other parts
of our culture in addition to biking. To parrot a familiar
aphorism: Some people have a lot more dollars than sense.

In my own case, I tend to ride
older bikes. However, I prefer to call these older bikes by a
more respectable term: Vintage. Below are a few of them:

1970's Ross Gran Tour.
Not sure of the exact year, but probably late 70's. Ross
was an American competitor of Schwinn and now out of business. A surpisingly good ride.

1980 Schwinn Continental.
This bike is heavy, but one of the smoothest I've ridden.
It was built in Chicago in May of 1980, two years before Schwinn
closed the plant. Bomb-proof bike.

1983 Trek 400. I obtained this as original, but then converted it into a hybrid.

1985 Cannondale SR300. Weighs about half of the Schwinn Conti shown above, but it doesn't ride as well.

1994 Trek 850. I prefer road or hybrid bikes, but I ride this mountain bike when I travel the Erie Canal towpath.

1969 Schwinn Fairlady.
I found this rusting up in storage and rebuilt it for my daughter
last Fall as a Christmas gift. It's a classic Schwinn from their
(now closed) Chicago plant.

Currently, I also have three Raliegh's, a 1977 Grand
Prix (made in England), a 1985 Record (Raleigh America), and a 1985 Wyoming (Raleigh America). This might bring up a
question: How many bikes do you need? For real bikers, the answer is N+1,
where N is the number of bikes that one already has.

My goal is to ride over 2,000
miles this year. This summer, I also plan to ride the Erie Canal
towpath from Lockport to Palmyra, an unrespectable distance of a mere
70 miles. I plan to break it into two days and expect to be done
riding before lunch on each day. Since my daily ride is about 20
miles, it shouldn't be much of a challenge. I am thinking that
the next year I might ride the entire 70 miles one day, stay overnight
in Palmyra, then ride back the next day. When I pass
Knowlesville, I may even leave the towpath and ride home. I might
even be up to letting you know how it turns out (Click here for end of season report). But, for the
time being, I have to get back to BS. Back to BS Professor index